Bill DeFillippo won’t hesitate to put his offensive line up against any in the new-look Kensington Lakes Activities Association as the 2017 season kicks off Friday at Monroe.

The Chargers finished 5-4 in 2016, but the team also had to deal with numerous injuries to the O-line. With youngsters gaining valuable experience, and everybody else seemingly healthy, DeFillippo is optimistic that good things are about to happen.

“We were very young up front,” said DeFillippo, entering his fifth season at the Churchill helm. “We had a couple of those guys have season-ending injuries. And so we probably started 10 different kids the whole year.”

One of the players who is back from injury is 6-1, 208-pound senior Steve Darichuk.

“Last year we had a lot of injuiries, a lot of people weren’t able to be playing together,” said Darichuk, a left tackle who missed the last four games with a broken arm. “We have that this year, so hopefully the chemistry will help us.”

Darichuk is one of the co-captains, but so are three other key members of the offense.

One of them happens to be 5-10, 220-pound center Colin McCusker, a player not bitten by the injury bug in 2016. Just like last year, McCusker will be snapping the football to quarterback and co-captain Drew Alsobrooks, a southpaw entering his junior season.

“We know each other well, we have good chemistry,” said McCuster, about teaming up for the second straight year with Alsobrooks.

Darichuk, McCusker, right tackle Ethan Gyurnek (who started seven games last year as a sophomore), returning right guard Joe Neimeister and senior Hunter Templin will hopefully provide plenty of time for Alsobrooks to find a running seam or spot an open receiver.

“I should have lots of time this year to throw the ball,” Alsobrooks said. “We should be able to run the ball on teams, pass the ball on teams.”

A talented core of running backs will benefit from the cohesive front line. One of them is senior fullback Mike Parrish (also a co-captain). Senior Tyrese Williams and junior Darrell Mason look to wreak havoc on opponent’s defenses.

When Alsobrooks throws the ball, it likely will go in the direction off starting wide-outs Martell Dooley and Avery Grenier, a senior and junior, respectively.

On defense, the Chargers will roll out a lineup featuring Parrish (linebacker), junior Andrew Greff (linebacker), spur players Mason and Williams and senior Jake Hastings (safety). Grenier and junior Josh Momeyer also will contribute in the defensive backfield.

New challenges

Meanwhile, DeFillippo said his team is ready to move from the KLAA South to the KLAA Black, necessitated by the downsizing of the conference from 24 to 14 teams.

“It will be an adjustment over the next couple years,” DeFillippo said. “But the bottom line is, our schedule is still tough every week. We open up our first three weeks on the road, Monroe, Northville, (Livonia) Stevenson.

“And then we got Franklin for our first home game. We got a lot of good teams, a lot of rivalries in the first half of the year. Every week we got to be ready.

“Even with the change, it’s the first year Canton’s off our schedule, but we get Grand Blanc. ... There’s quality teams all over and you got to be ready to play every week.”

The new challenges have Parrish excited to get started. “I’m looking for more wins, more competitive teams to beat. We’re just trying to ball-out this year.”

Note: Churchill athletic director Marc Hage announced Monday that the Chargers' season opener, originally slated for Thursday night in Monroe, has been moved to 7 p.m. Friday.